HELLO and welcome to the AM Business Briefing, as a new report finds business is approaching a "cliff edge".
The CBI said the foundations for economic recovery remained firm despite global supply issues affecting growth in the near-term.
Its latest economic forecast warned that short-term problems such as rising costs and shortages have worsened since the summer.
Longer-term challenges, notably persistently poor productivity, underlined the need for a "booster" for business investment to support sustainable growth, said the report.
The CBI is forecasting 6.9% growth in GDP over 2021 and 5.1% in 2022, revised down from 8.2% and 6.1% respectively.
The business group said it expects supply chain frictions to largely dissipate by the middle of next year.
Tony Danker, CBI director general, said: "The challenge for January 1 is now very clear for the UK economy.
"Significant headwinds and rising costs of living threaten the extent of recovery and prospects for economic success.
"These hurdles for firms will provide a major test for Government - can they foster sustainable UK investment and growth?
"The UK's New Year resolution must be to give firms the confidence to go for growth. We should be raising our sights on the economy's potential and seizing the moment.
"I know from speaking with firms of all sizes that they have an ambitious investment mindset, and are anxious to implement growth plans.
"But while intentions have thawed, we're coming up to a cliff edge in 2023."
Rain Newton-Smith, CBI chief economist, added: "We expect a pretty firm economic recovery ahead, though understandably the emergence of Omicron poses another downside risk to our forecast.
"Increasing exports is a vital component of sustainable growth. Exporting companies are more productive, resilient and help create internationally competitive UK regions.
"Let us be candid - UK exports are being outpaced by our global peers which, if allowed to continue, will negatively impact our economy in the long term.
"We must continue to address market access barriers globally while supporting all businesses to seek growth internationally."
Glasgow firm seals winter warmer acquisition
Connected Response is being acquired by Warmworks, the joint venture responsible for delivering the Scottish Government’s national Warmer Homes efficiency scheme.
Headed by co-founder and managing director Kenny Cameron, Connected Response works with social landlords such as the Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) to improve the efficiency of electric storage heating systems.
Scottish EDGE can be a ‘template for business success’
SIR Tom Hunter has admitted that he feared the pandemic would affect Scotland’s business birth rate but spoke of his “pride” at the success of the high-profile Scottish EDGE Awards, the initiative which supports Scotland’s most innovative and high-growth potential early-stage businesses.
The founder of The Hunter Foundation, speaking on The Go Radio Business Show with Hunter and Haughey, said that his initial fears proved unfounded as last week Scottish EDGE invested £1.5 million in start-ups and scale-ups – its biggest ever amount – in the latest round of the long-running business competition.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here